Women and gender issues

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the round table on “Rebirthing the Global Economy to Deliver Sustainable Development:  Insights from Women Leaders”, in New York today:

In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres.  Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.

More than 55 million domestic workers — 37 million of whom are women — are at risk of losing their jobs and income amid COVID-19 lockdowns, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is warning.  Only about 10 per cent of domestic workers globally have access to social security safety nets.

For the first time since 2018, the World Food Programme has been able to send a humanitarian convoy from Kenya directly into South Sudan through the Nadapal Border crossing.  The nine-truck convoy carried 280 metric tons of food, enough to feed 20,000 people for a month.  The route’s reopening cuts travel times in half.

An Ebola outbreak has been identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s western Equateur province.  The health ministry has identified six cases, including four people who have died.  The World Health Organization has staff in Mbandaka, the main city impacted by the outbreak, to support the response.

The twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will now take place from 1-12 November 2021, in Glasgow.  United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said that if done right, recovery from the COVID-19 crisis can foster a more inclusive climate path.

More than one in six young people have stopped working since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said today.  The latest ILO analysis of coronavirus’s impact on the labour market notes that those youth who remain employed have seen their working hours cut by 23 per cent.

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s briefing, as prepared for delivery, to the Peacebuilding Commission on the joint mission to Papua New Guinea, in New York today:

The Secretary-General launched a new report highlighting the centrality of human rights to COVID-19 response and recovery alongside recommendations, saying the pandemic is fast becoming a human rights crisis exposing deep weaknesses in public service delivery that must be addressed.